How do you feel about Biophilic buildings? If you’ve never heard the term ‘biophilic’ it comes from the greek word ‘Biophilia,’ which translates to love of nature. Biophilic, specifically biophilic design, is an architectural movement that’s picked up the pace in the turn of the century, where buildings are created with elements of nature as part of their structure.
Countries like China and Singapore are big spear-headers of these types of buildings, but Amazon built its workers an ultramodern space in Seattle. Their building called ‘The Spheres,’ is a quiet oasis for workers to relax in spherical buildings that house more than 40,000 plants. The ‘One Central Park’ building in Sydney, Australia has a giant hanging garden that covers the pristine glass building to not only make it eco-friendly but, literally, green.
Intrigued? Well, get ready Denver, because we’ll be getting our very own Biophilic building as early as 2023. Chinese architecture studio, MAD Architects has teamed up with Colorado-local architects, Davis Partnership Architects to design and propose the One River North Properties, which could begin construction very soon.
The building will be a 16-story residential tower located in the RiNo district, which will provide over 193 apartment homes, three levels of underground parking, a rooftop, and even a pool, garden, and waterfall that will be framed by the Colorado Rockies.
What makes this building stand out though will be the way its design incorporates nature. The building’s defining feature is a carved-out rift on its glass exterior, built to resemble a mountainous trail that you’ll have to see to believe. There will also be a trail-like walkway that covers four fours and water elements, amongst more intricate details.
What’s amazing is that this will be MAD’s first ever residential project in the states, and Denver gets to be the local place to house the incredible project. “The nature-inspired design by MAD Architects was influenced by Colorado’s legendary landforms and merges nature and architecture to inspire a well-balanced lifestyle,” says Kevin Ratner, co-founder of the Max Collaborative. With all that being said, what do you think about the new building? What do you think about it being built here in Denver?
[featured image courtesy of one river north]